Various - 9 (Classic)

Carter & Solomon's Classic remains one of the best-loved labels in UK house history, so this new remix series is bound to get a few musical tastebuds watering. The series kicked off with the 10 EP a bit since, and now here's volume two in the series, numbered 9 in classic Classic 'countdown' fashion.

The tracks getting the remix treatment this time are Roy Davis Jr's About Love, Lil' Mark's At That Place, Isolee's Brazil.com and Robbie Hardkiss's Everything Is Changin', which get reinterpreted inna 2009 stylee by Bearweasel, Lil' Mark himself (with the remix entitled At That Cafe), Ajello and Brian Heath, respectively. The remakes all fit within Classic's typical remit of a slightly off-kilter brand of deep house, though – as intended – with a more contemporary feel.

Brazil.com, for instance, now has a little added nu-disco sheen (and, like many of the first-gen rerubs, loses that long, 'difficult' intro). Heath's Double-Punch Mix of Everything… beefs up the kicks for a more immediate, techno feel, though to my mind loses some of the shizoid charm of the disco-boompty original. Bearweasel's Linear Dub of All About Love is a very now-sounding piece of deep house that to me beats any of the mixes first time around except possibly Isolee's. And as for About That Cafe, well I don't seem to have (and don't, TBH, recall) the original but this version is a very European-sounding piece of deep house/cosmic action that, for some reason, makes me want to shoot comedy spy thrillers in Paris.

All told, this is a release that Classic lovers won't want to miss. It had me running off to the Expedits to dig out the originals, and I'm happy to report these rerubs more than hold their own, particularly in the case of the Bearweasel mix.

About the label: Oh come on. Another label that needs no introduction from me, but here's the MySpace anyway (they don't seem to have an actual website at the mo') and, just in case you DO need to bring yourself up to speed, the Classic catalogue at Discogs.